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JOBS FOR THE FUTURE REPORT COMMENTSThe report had some nice statistics and some that just did not seem to go with all the data that I have looked at over the past few years that includes a Civic Enterprises report on why high school kids drop out. The report throws out the data differently, which is a nice thing as well. The study analyzes data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study that looked at 25,000 students over a 12-year period. I will say that study is a major one though. I liked that put the data out by the socioeconomic status, but they only stated that 18% of people drop out of school which to me is a very low number. It goes against a whole bunch of research that pegs the drop out rate over the 30% mark. I think they got some bad data here. The Civic Enterprise report got high school drop out data from another report. They Jobs for the Future report also states that higher in socioeconomic ladder you get the lower the drop out rate, which I think is correct. They say that key reasons people drop out of high school are the parents educational and income level. This 100% flies at the face of the 2006 Civic Enterprises report that says the number one reason why a student drops out of high school is that classes as boring. Now we have to ask the question, which one is right???? The data also showed that 60% of the dropouts went back to either get a high school diploma or GED. Most get the GED though and the higher the socioeconomic ladder you go the higher the amount of people getting some sort of a high school level degree. The Civic Enterprises report does not go into this at all so we cannot compare and contrast data. 60% is a good number, but we all know it can be much higher. The report says that around 10% of dropouts do wind finishing with some college degree. I think this really sucks. The report does not really say why this number is so low. My guess is rising tuition rates along with other money problems is the reason why this number is so low. To fix the drop out problem the Jobs for the future report says that you need high educational standards which is the same thing the Civic Enterprise reports says. They both suggest smaller schools to get at the drop out problem. It is nice to see two different reports offer the same types of ideas to solve the same problem. We really do need to solve this problem are those are some great ways to start. To comment on my commentary: RichardGinn@myeducationalplan.com SOURCES Almeida, Cheryl , Cassius Johnson, and Adria Steinberg"Making
Good on a Promise: What Policymakers Can Do to Support the
Educational Persistence of Dropouts" Jobs for the Future (2006)n.
pag. Online. Internet. April 2006 Bridgeland, John. M, John J. DiIulio, Jr.,
and Karen Burke Morison "The Silent Epidemic Perspectives
of High School Dropouts" Civic Enterprises (2006)
n. pag. Online. Internet. 2006 LA Times dropout series link: http://www.latimes.com/news/ The Rocky Mountain News dropout series link: The Detroit News dropout series link: Toppo, Greg "Dropouts say their schools
expected too little of them" USA Today (2006)
n. pag. Online.Internet, March 1, 2006
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